The overall strength of the North American packaging market has led to a series of acquisitions of liquid ink companies during the past year. Along these lines, Mosley Holdings announced the acquisition of Graphic Sciences, a water-based packaging inks and coatings specialist headquartered in Portland, OR, late last month.

Graphic Sciences will become part of American Inks and Coatings (AIC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mosley Holdings. With $68 million in sales in 2010, AIC is the sixth-largest U.S. packaging ink manufacturer. AIC is enjoying excellent growth in flexible packaging and folding cartons, as well as a leadership position in multi-wall bags and gift wrap segments. The company is also vertically integrated into the dispersions field.

Jerry Mosley, Mosley Holdings’ CEO, said the acquisition of Graphic Sciences provides AIC with the knowledge and products necessary to successfully enter the corrugated ink market.

“We believe American Ink is the low-cost producer of water-based inks for packaging,” said Mr. Mosley. “The one packaging ink market we did not participate in is corrugated, and we feel with the technical and industry knowledge that Graphic Sciences brings gives us the opportunity to become a major player in corrugated.”

AIC will continue to operate Graphic Sciences’ eight facilities, and will consolidate the company’s headquarters in Mosley Holdings’ Sheridan, AR offices. In addition, Jeff Ashburn, president of Graphic Sciences, will stay on to lead this group for AIC. Mr. Mosley said that the experience and knowledge of the Graphic Sciences’ team is extremely important to AIC going forward.

“The biggest asset to American Ink in this acquisition is Graphic Sciences’ technical people, the knowledge of the industries they serve and the customer base we need to be successful in these new markets,” Mr. Mosley concluded. “I feel both companies will gain from the knowledge we can now share in moving forward as one company.”